Heart repairs closer to home

The chances of dying or suffering lasting damage from a heart attack in the area covered by the Midcentral District Health Board could be slashed by an $8 million investment in cardiac services.

The new facilities at Palmerston North Hospital, planned to be in place within two years, would overcome the need to transfer 238 heart patients a year to Wellington Hospital for treatment. Acute and elective specialist services operations executive Lyn Horgan said the lack of intervention services in the region subjected people to ‘‘unacceptable inequities’’ that could not continue.

Delays in transfers were stressful and inconvenient for families and patients and also carried the risk of them dying while waiting, or of irreversible damage happening to the heart.

The key part of the new development would be a ‘‘cath lab’’, where specialist cardiac teams would be able to both diagnose blockages in the arteries feeding the heart muscle and angioplasty to open the vessel.

At the moment only diagnostic angiography can be carried out in Palmerston North and the second procedure has to be done in Wellington if a blockage was found.

There would be enhanced echocardiography equipment to capture images of the heart and understand how it was working.

The facility would also include an eighth operating theatre at Palmerston North Hospital, where pacemakers could be put in.

That would help increase capacity for other surgeries as well.

Horgan’s report presented several case studies to board members explaining the stress and inconvenience for patients having to be transported between hospitals. Many were discharged directly from Wellington Hospital, with family members having to drive down to collect them.

‘‘Driving home was scary after everything that had happened to me,’’ one woman said.

‘‘My wife came and got me and took me home. That wasn’t so good because she hates to drive in Wellington,’’ said a man in his 50s.

The new facilities would be provided within the existing hospital, ahead of approval for a new acute services block.

Delays in transfers were stressful and inconvenient for families.